"The beautiful ruby red color and complex fruit in this wine shows why Santa Ynez is such a perfect domain for classic Pinot Noir. The nose shows dark cherries with an array of spices. The mouth is weighty with long flavors that follow suit. It's perfect for pairing with a wide variety of foods.

After two miniscule harvests in 2010 and 2011, we finally saw some Pinot Noir on the vines in 2012. So much so that I was able to produce all my reserve wines, and I still had a stack of barrels left that allowed me to produce this very tasty Santa Ynez cuvee. Not only was the harvest plentiful, but the weather throughout the growing season was ideal and it shows in this wine. Not every vintage allows me to produce a Pinot that is this good and this affordable, so enjoy it while it lasts."-Winery

WINERY:
"Babcock Vineyards was established in 1978 when Mona and Walter Babcock purchased a 110 acre property on Highway 246 between Lompoc and Buellton in the western Santa Ynez Valley. At the time, the Babcocks were in the restaurant business, as they are to this day, being the proprietors of the legendary Walt's Wharf in Seal Beach California. Over the years Walter practiced a number of crafts, making him a full-fledged Renaissance guy. At the time of establishing the vineyard, he was also a dentist and a commercial fisherman. Shortly after the purchase of their property, the Babcocks planted a modest 20 acres to such varieties as Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. In 1983, after building a small garage and purchasing a few wine barrels, they took a whack at their first experimental vintage. That year, they also delivered small batches of fruit to a few of the more notable winemakers in the area. While Rick Longoria and Fred Brander made compelling Sauvignon Blancs, Jim Clendenen at Au Bon Climat produced a stunning Chardonnay."

"Prompted by the promising results, Walt and Mona decided it was time to seize the opportunity to produce commercial wines. While they were setting the stage for a small fledgling winery, their son, Bryan, decided to cut short his graduate school studies and join them. In 1982 Bryan was having trouble getting accepted to the business schools of his choice. With Harvard, Stanford and Wharton having tossed his modest undergraduate credentials into the trash, Bryan felt it best to check out 'the wine thing' with mom and dad. As a result, he took majors in biology and chemistry from Occidental College and applied to UC Davis to start a master’s in enology. After spending two years on course work, he was supposed to return to Davis to put together a thesis for his degree in the fall of 1984. Says Bryan, 'I started crushing Gewurztraminer that September and forgot about school altogether.' Fortunately, his studies primed him for his first harvest, as he was awarded gold medals at the L.A. and Orange County Fairs for his 1984 Estate Grown Sauvignon Blanc. (Interestingly, one of Bryan's more memorable early career moments was being invited to lecture the business students at Wharton a few years later on the in's and out's of the wine industry.)" -Winery